The Swedish forest industry has a positive effect on the global climate equivalent to 93 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, when both forest and forest products are taken into account. This means that the positive climate effect of the forest industry is almost as great as the total Swedish consumption of 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Innovation is key to improving productivity, sustainability and resilience in food and agriculture.
The Bio-based Industries Consortium are launching a digital platform to create partnerships between regions and industries. The concept is based on a digital, partnering platform where regions and industry can make contact based on mutual interest.
Workshop in Cali, Colombia: “Building the National Bioeconomy Strategy”, following the UKPACT project “Support in the implementation of Colombia’s Green Growth Policy through investments and capacity development of public and private actors”. The workshop was part of the agenda Bioexpo 2019, the most important green and sustainable business fair in the country.
The Centre of Expertise Biobased Economy (CoE-BBE) of the Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences Avans and HZ wants to collaborate more closely with the Flemish Ghent University of Applied Sciences (HOGENT). This may lead to an International Centre of Expertise Biobased Economy.
The Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge Europe (BISC-E) seeks to promote breakthrough innovation in the bio-based sector in an annual competition between some of Europe’s most promising university students (BSc & MSc). The five teams presented their innovative projects to an audience of leading figures from the bio-based industry.
The workshop is promoted by the European Bioeconomy Network and it is the satellite event of the “European Workshop on Bioeconomy”, hosted by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food and organised by the BIOVOICES project.
The European Union will announce 22 new commitments at the 2019 edition of ‘Our Ocean conference', for better governance of the oceans. In addition, the EU is also launching ‘The Ocean Tracker', an interactive map to follow the over 10 billion euros commitments already made by governments, businesses and NGOs.
How can public authorities help to advance the bioeconomy through their purchasing decisions? An EU-funded project has produced a handbook and tools for procurers to support a shift towards greater sustainability.
An ERDF-funded project is distributing containers for the collection of waste cooking oil to schoolchildren and teaching them how to recycle this waste.
As a response to the call for food and feed security, parallel to the needed climate, circularity, spatial planning and biodiversity actions, attention at this year’s EU EATiP day was given to low-trophic aquaculture. With its potential to create a high output while minimizing its impact, new value chains in aquaculture based on shellfish, algae or other low-trophic organisms offer a high potential for Europe.
Ahead of the December Council meeting on Fisheries, the Commission has adopted its proposal for fishing opportunities in 2020 for 72 stocks in the Atlantic and the North Sea. The fishing opportunities, or Total Allowable Catches (TACs), are quotas set for most commercial fish stocks in order to keep or restore healthy stocks, while allowing the industry to profit from fishing the highest amount of fish.
Seven communities in south-eastern Europe plan to install biomass-based district heating systems thanks to an EU-funded project designed to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and strengthen local economies.
One year after the Commission had launched its updated European Bioeconomy Strategy, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) organised together with the European Commission an event on European Bioeconomy: Regions, Cities and Civil Society in Brussels on October 16.
Now in its third year, the Award recognises projects that contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and the achievement of the socio-cultural, socio-economic and technological transformation of societies, using the 15 pathways outlined in the Basque Declaration.
The European Commission’s latest reports on gas and electricity markets, which cover the second quarter of 2019, have just been published, containing a wide range of data about supply and usage of electricity and gas in the EU.
Bioeconomy, opportunities under constraints
